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The Demolition Discount

Scott and Pamela Weiss paid a little under $5 million for a home in Palo Alto, Calif., last year. Come tax time, they expect to get back about $66,000 for tearing it down.

That's because the Weisses, who are spending more than $4 million to build a new home on the site, took down the original home using a method known as "deconstruction." In this process, a crew carefully dismantles an older property by hand instead of using bulldozers. The process costs more than a straightforward demolition—the Weisses paid more...

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Deconstructing Houses Is Growing West Coast Trend

Home buyers who want to tear down and renovate their houses can do that without wrecking balls and bulldozers now. "Deconstruction" is a growing trend in the West Coast housing market. WSJ's Monika Vosough looks at why people are switching to the new method.